High School DxD: Fox of Ill Omen

Yuki

“So it’s not only me who came to greet Ise-kun this morning.”

Akeno was looking at me with a mischievous smile.

Rias was looking at me with open suspicion.

Issei was looking back and forth between each of us with interest and slight fear.

Asia, somehow, was asleep again.

I sighed as I let the door shut behind me.

“I was passing by,” I said immediately.

Rias’s eyes narrowed. “Passing by?”

“Yes.”

“Into Ise’s room?”

“I heard voices and I knocked.”

Akeno placed one hand lightly against her chest in mock shock. “Ara, and here I thought Yuki-chan had finally decided to be bold.”

“No, that is not what happened.” I replied

Issei made the smart decision to stay silent as he sat near the pillows.

Rias noticed my glance to him.

“Is that so Yuki-chan?”

One of my ears twitched in annoyance. 

The noise must have finally been enough because Asia finally stirred awake fully.

Asia pushed herself up a little more, finally waking enough to understand what was happening around her.

Her eyes widened.

Then she looked at me in the doorway, then at Rias and Akeno, then at Issei.

And then, because she was Asia, she said very earnestly,

“Good morning!”

I couldn’t help but smile at her warm greeting.

It almost made me laugh with how different it was from the strange atmosphere in the room.

Rias recovered first.

“You,” she said, pointing at me as though I were the intruder rather than the woman standing in someone else’s bed that she had just been arguing with. “Why are you sneaking into Ise’s room first thing in the morning?”

“I wasn’t sneaking.”

Akeno tilted her head. “But none of us heard you come in. So were you planning on climbing into the bed too?”

I stared at her.

“No.”

“My, what a shame.”

“I was walking back to my room after getting some water.”

I lifted my glass of water to prove the point.

“And you just happened to wander into Ise’s room? While still in your pajamas?” Rias asked.

I looked down at my own yukata.

It was more like pajama than regular clothes but it was still leagues better than what Akeno was wearing. 

“Yes. Like I said, I heard voices and came in when no one answered the door”

“That sounds like a very weak excuse, Yuki-chan.”

“It’s not an excuse,” I said. “It’s what happened.”

Under almost any other circumstances, I might have found this mildly amusing.

Under these circumstances, I found it deeply unfair.

Because it was happening to me.

And Akeno was going to egg on Rias’s competitive side whenever she could, because she loved the chaos. 

Asia looked back and forth between us, alarm giving way to confusion. “Rias-san, Akeno-san… why are you both…”

She stopped before finishing the sentence, cheeks reddening.

Akeno smiled as if Asia had asked something adorable. “We were greeting Ise-kun.”

“By being naked?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Akeno’s smile turned smug as she leaned towards me. 

“But Yuki-chan, I’m wearing clothes. And you seem to be looking at them very thoroughly. But I could take them off for you if that’s what you’d like.”

Rias’s face colored, though only slightly. “And I sleep naked! You should all know that by this point! But that isn’t the point.”

“It appears to be part of the point when I walk in on two women ready to brawl on a bed.” I murmured

Issei buried his face in his hands.

“I’m going to die,” he muttered.

“You’ll survive, Ise-kun. After all I’m not done with you,”  Akeno said warmly.

Rias frowned at her and folded her arms beneath her chest.

That would have been much easier to ignore if she had been dressed.

She was not.

After glancing down, I forced myself to look at her face.

“And what exactly,” she asked me with dangerous calm, “did you think you were doing hovering in the doorway while the rest of us were occupied?”

“I was trying to leave.”

“After realizing we were here.”

“Yes.”

“Suspicious.”

I stared at her.

Akeno laughed softly. “Rias, you can’t accuse her of actually doing anything when she only opened the door and stepped inside.”

That would have been more helpful if the amusement in Akeno’s voice didn’t make it clear she was about to make the whole situation worse instead of better.

She turned back to me and patted the bed.

“Come here, then.”

I rejected the suggestion on principle.

“No.”

Asia looked uncertain. “Yuki…”

I knew that tone.

She thought if I came farther into the room, the situation might somehow become normal.

It would not.

Nothing about this room was normal.

Not the number of girls in it.

Not the quantity of exposed skin.

Not the fact that I was holding a glass of water like a fool while three beautiful women and one panicked boy stared at me.

“Umm… maybe we should let Yuki-san leave.” Issei nervously said, trying to help.

“Quiet Ise.” Rias said without looking at him.

“Yes Buchou.” Issei said while seeming to deflate at having no control over his own room. 

Akeno glanced at Issei before looking at me with an amused look in her eyes.

I disliked it immediately. 

“My, don’t tell me you were really hoping to steal a march on us.”

“I was trying to go back to my room.”

Rias sniffed. “After seeing what we were here.”

“I still intend to.”

“You say that now,” Akeno murmured.

I gave them both a flat look. “Are the two of you hearing yourselves?”

“Yes,” Rias said.

“And we sound very reasonable,” Akeno added.

That was the point where I understood I was not going to escape with dignity.

I turned slightly toward Issei in a last attempt to find one sane person in the room.

Though normally he would be the last person I would refer to as the sane one. 

He looked away when I tried to make eye contact. 

Traitor.

Asia, unfortunately, chose that moment to brighten in the way she did when she thought she had discovered a solution.

“Oh,” she said. “If Yuki-san is already here, then maybe all of us could….”

Rias and Akeno turned toward her and she slowly stopped talking.

Then they looked at each other, then slowly, both turned back toward me.

I took one step backward.

“No.”

It was too late.

Akeno moved first.

Even from halfway across the room, she managed to grab my wrist before I could turn and open the door enough to escape.

At the same time Rias grabbed the loose fabric of the sleeve on my other arm. 

My ears lowered as I realized I wasn’t getting away. 

“Wait—”

That was as far as I got.

The water in my cup went sloshing dangerously as they pulled me back. 

I kept hold of the glass by instinct, which was apparently the wrong decision, because trying not to spill it cost me my balance and still spilled half the cup onto Rias and myself. 

Akeno laughed.

Rias made an offended sound as if this were somehow my fault

Asia gasped.

Issei shouted in surprise.

Then I was on the edge of the bed.

Still not in it.

That, apparently, was not good enough for anyone except me.

“Rias,” I said through my teeth, trying not to spill the rest of the water. “Let go.”

“Not when you were clearly trying to run away. Plus you got me all wet!”

“I was trying to run away and you were the one who made me spill the water.”

“You were being suspicious!” she said again.

“I was telling you I would leave until you dragged me half way across the room.”

I went to continue but paused when I realized that my [King] and another one of her servants had just tried to force me into a bed with them and my first reaction was to get annoyed at being pulled into their antics and that I had gotten water spilled on me.

I didn’t lock up or panic and try to fight back or collapse into learned obedience at something that should have caused a reaction from me.

It made me realize how much more comfortable around them I had become. 

Then Akeno brought me out of my thoughts as she leaned closer.

“You can’t try to sneak into Ise-kin’s room and steal a march on us, then expect to leave without consequences when your plan fails.”

At this point I wasn’t sure if Akeno had accidentally convinced herself that I had any sort of interest in Issei while she was feeding Rias’s paranoid belief that I was some sort of competition to her.

“Rias-san, Akeno-san, I have no romantic interest in Hyoudou Issei.”

It was quiet for a beat before Akeno replied.

“Awww, you don’t need to be shy, Yuki-chan.”

“Plus, it’s not very convincing anyways.” Rias said. 

Even Asia was giving me an unconvinced looks, though hers looked a little guilty. 

“I-It’s alright Yuki. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

I stared at the three of them.

I felt my tails shift behind me in agitation.

“I’m being serious.”

They looked at me with expressions that told me they didn’t believe me.

Either they had come to the assumption that every girl in the peerage was interested in him, or they were projecting their own feelings onto me. 

Whatever the case was, I was still being held by Akeno and Rias.

“Will you let me leave now?”

“No” Akeno and Rias replied together. 

Asia, to my horror, gave a tiny laugh.

Not mocking.

Just the involuntary kind that happened when she was flustered and overwhelmed and everything had become too ridiculous to process properly.

Rias’s eyes narrowed at Akeno again, the embarrassment in her face deepening into something prouder and more combative.

“Akeno,” she said, in the tone of someone already halfway into an argument she intended to win, “you’re the one who climbed into Ise’s bed first.”

Akeno’s smile did not falter. If anything, it grew sweeter.

“My, Rias. You say that as though you weren’t already here.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” Akeno asked with, infuriating ease. “That only you and Asia are allowed to sleep beside him whenever you feel like it?”

Rias’s cheeks colored more, though she lifted her chin. “Asia is Asia and I’m his master.”

Akeno laughed softly. “There it is again.”

The air changed.

Not in the dangerous way it had during battles or political meetings.

In the much more exhausting way it changed whenever those two stopped teasing and started competing.

Asia, still sleepy and sitting near Issei, looked back and forth nervously.

“R-Rias-san, Akeno-san…”

Neither of them listened.

Akeno leaned across issei toward Rias, without letting go of my arm, her expression warm and delighted and sharp all at once. “You’re acting possessive of someone who isn’t only yours.”

Rias drew herself up, entirely unashamed of her nudity and somehow regal despite still holding my sleeve like a child. “And you become insufferable whenever you think you can steal a moment from me.”

“My, what a cruel accusation.”

“It isn’t cruel if it’s true.”

“I’ll go,” I said.

No one listened to me either.

I was debating using magic or one of my abilities to escape.

But I couldn’t misstep with them holding me and I didn’t want to do anything to accidentally harm them.

So, I would just wait for them to get bored and let me go.

“Steal from you?” Akeno repeated, one hand lightly over her chest. “Rias, you make it sound so scandalous.”

“It is scandalous.”

“But aren’t you taking opportunities from me too?”

“Because that’s different.”

Akeno’s smile turned positively wicked.

“Is it?”

Rias finally let go of me. 

The answer was apparently a pillow.

Rias snatched one up with the offended decisiveness of a noble woman and swung it at Akeno with no warning.

Then Akeno let go of me in surprise.

Akeno caught the first blow against her shoulder and let out a bright, delighted laugh.

“Ara!”

“You started it,” Rias said at once.

“I did no such thing.”

“You absolutely did.”

Asia squeaked and flinched backward as the two of them suddenly burst into motion around her.

Issei excitedly watched their bodies, his mouth half opened, as they began to swing pillows at each other.

Their chests were bouncing around with each swing they made and hit they took.

I looked away from them and looked to the door.

I set down my glass of water and took a careful step backward.

Then another.

This still did not concern me.

Akeno answered the first attack by grabbing a pillow of her own and striking back.

Rias blocked.

Feathers did not explode everywhere, but the sound of the impact and the immediate counterattack made it obvious this had gone from argument to battle without any intention of returning.

Asia looked from one to the other in growing alarm.

“W-Wait, please! You’ll hit—”

Akeno’s next swing clipped her shoulder by accident.

Asia gasped.

Rias hit her with a pillow in the scramble too.

Asia stared at them, stunned.

For one beautiful instant, I thought that might stop this.

Instead, it only made both of them freeze.

Then look at Asia.

“Sorry.” They somehow both managed to say at the same time

Asia’s cheeks puffed slightly.

Then she grabbed a pillow too.

I stared.

That was a mistake.

Because my surprise lasted just long enough for Akeno to finally notice I was still in the room.

“My,” she said, laughing breathlessly as she parried another hit from Rias. “Yuki-chan is still trying to pretend she isn’t involved.”

“I’m not involved.”

Rias hit Akeno again, then pointed her pillow at me in the same motion. “You’re standing there watching.”

“I’m standing here trying to leave.”

“But you’re still here,” Akeno said.

“I feel like none of you have listened to anything I have said since I entered this room.”

Rias’s eyes flashed with competitive energy. “Then stop hovering in the doorway and choose a side.”

“I choose not to participate. And since when are their sides?”

Asia, to my complete disbelief, hit me lightly with her pillow.

Not hard.

Not even particularly well.

But it was enough.

I looked at her.

She flushed at once. “I-I’m sorry! But you didn’t pick a side! I got worried!”

“That doesn’t make sense. Whose side are you on, Asia?”

She looked stumped for a moment.

“Oh! I’m on Ise-san’s side!” She said as she brightened into a smile.

I glanced at Issei then.

He had glanced away from the fight to look at the room.

His brow scrunched in confusion for a moment before shrugging and going back to watching the fight.

Before I could wonder what was wrong I was nearly hit again by a stray swing. 

Akeno laughed hard enough that she nearly missed Rias, striking her again.

“Oh, that won’t do,” she said. “Now Yuki-chan really has to join.”

“No,” I said.

Rias hit me too.

A little harder than Asia had.

“Now you’re part of it.”

“I was dragged into it.”

“Same thing,” Akeno said.

“It is not the same thing.”

Another pillow came at me. This one I caught on instinct.

That turned out to be a terrible decision, because the moment I had one in my hands, Rias looked vindicated.

“There,” she said. “You’re fighting back.”

“I’m defending myself.”

“That still means you’re joining. And once I win this fight you’ll all see that Ise is mine.”

“Oh I can’t let you win Rias.” Akeno said. “If Ise-kun is on the line then I need to beat you.”

“I-I won’t give up on Ise-san! A-Also, this is a lot of fun…” Asia said.

Before I could reply, Akeno swung at me from the other side.

I blocked it, more out of reflex than intent.

Then Asia hit me again in the back.

Asia made a tiny noise somewhere between apology and laughter, which was deeply unhelpful.

In the space of a few breaths, whatever line had existed between their argument and my escape vanished completely.

Now the room was only chaos.

Rias attacked with proud, indignant force, every blow carrying the energy of someone who had decided that this was a much more serious thing than it really was.

Akeno fought with smiling delight, clearly enjoying every second of making the situation worse.

Asia, flustered but smiling brightly, kept alternating between little apologetic taps and surprisingly committed swings whenever one of the others pulled her further into it.

I climbed onto the bed with them. 

I fought because at that point it was impossible not to.

Because if I did not, they would beat me over the head with pillows and say it was deserved.

And, annoyingly, part of me had started enjoying the ridiculousness of it in spite of myself.

Plus if I fled now I would never hear the end of it from Akeno and Rias.

I hit Rias once and caught her across the upper arm. 

She gasped in offended disbelief. “Yuki-chan!”

“You hit me first.”

“You’re supposed to go after Akeno and Asia, not me!”

Akeno smiled brightly and struck Rias from the other side. “My, that does sound a little unfair to us after you pulled her into this.”

Rias turned on her at once. “Don’t pretend you weren’t trying to do the same as her!”

“Trying to do what?”

“To steal the morning from me!”

Akeno’s eyes shone. “Rias, what a way to phrase it.”

Asia made another helpless sound, then hit me again.

I stared at her.

She looked horrified by her own boldness. “I’m sorry!”

“You are saying that while attacking me.”

“I know!”

That made me chuckle.

Akeno shifted, trying to dodge Rias’s next swing, and I reacted at the same time to avoid getting caught in the middle of it.

The result was that I moved just as Akeno moved right.

Our feet tangled in the blanket.

I lost my balance.

Asia hit Akeno in the side pushing her back.

Neither of us had enough room to recover.

Akeno fell backward onto the bed with a startled sound that turned into a breathless laugh halfway down.

And I went with her.

I caught myself before putting my full weight on her, one hand braced against the mattress near her shoulder, one knee sinking into the blankets between her legs, the other planted more solidly for balance.

For one stupid second, everything in my body went still.

Akeno was beneath me.

Her dark hair had spilled across the pillow and sheets in a soft mess.

Her eyes were wide with surprise, and because her clothes had shifted with the fall, her clothes went from covering very little to barely anything.

One of her beasts was uncovered and the bottom of the yukata had moved up so far that I now knew she wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath it.

She was far too close.

I started to push myself away immediately.

That was when Rias’s pillow hit me squarely between the shoulders.

And Asia struck my side a heartbeat later.

The combined force wasn’t much in any real sense, but in that position it was enough.

I lurched forward.

Akeno’s breath caught.

And suddenly I was much closer than I had been a second earlier.

Our faces were closer together and our lower bodies were pressed together.

I could feel her breath on my skin.

The day at the pool flashed through my mind.

My hands moved over her body.

Her flushed and breathless.

Me forgetting it was only supposed to be payback and making her squirm.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them Akeno was still laying beneath me, her face flushing as I stared at her. 

It was only a soft wash of pink across her cheeks, but it was more obvious because of how usually composed she was.

For one moment, she stopped smiling.

Her lips parted slightly.

Her eyes stayed on mine before dipping to my lips for a second.

When she looked back to my eyes there was a look in hers that I recognized too quickly.

Surprise first, then heat, then the beginning of something more dangerous.

My own heart kicked hard against my ribs.

Rias, to my left, noticed the state of Akeno’s clothes.

“Akeno! Put your clothes back on!”

Asia squeaked my name in exactly the tone of someone realizing she had helped create a disaster.

I pushed up at once, but because of the blankets and the fact that my balance was still ruined, all I managed to do was shift wrong and drag my thigh between Akeno’s legs slightly as I tried to get up.

That made her flush deepen.

Her lashes lowered for a second in a way that made it very obvious she had not forgotten the pool either.

“Ara,” she murmured softly.

The way she said that one word sent a small shiver down my neck. 

“I am moving,” I said immediately, which was true even if it wasn’t working.

Akeno’s smile returned, but it had changed. 

It’s was softer and a little unsteady at the edges. “You seem to be taking your time.”

Rias hit me with the pillow again.

“Get off her.”

“I am trying. Hitting me isn’t helping”

“Yuki-chan doesn’t look to be trying very hard,” Akeno said.

I turned to stare at her in disbelief.

Asia, already scarlet, grabbed at my sleeve in a panicked attempt to help and only succeeded in pulling me sideways enough that I had to brace myself again.

This time with one hand against the mattress by Akeno’s head and the other against the bed near her waist.

Which was somehow worse.

Akeno looked up at me with that same slight flush and far too much awareness in her eyes.

She was definitely enjoying this and enjoying watching me struggle to get off of her.

Perhaps too much.

I hated that her looking at me like that made it harder to move off of her.

Rias finally helped by grabbed a fistful of the back of my yukata and pulling me up off of Akeno.

I got back onto my knees, breath slightly unsteady, and reached automatically to smooth my hair back into place.

I glanced at everyone as I corrected my clothes.

Asia was flushed and had both hands over her mouth.

Rias looked flushed and annoyed that the Akeno and I getting tangled together ruined her fight.

Issei… I had to look around the room before I spotted him off the the side.

I hadn’t realized he had left the bed during the pillow fight.

It was strange that he wasn’t taking the chance to ogle the girls in his bed.

I don’t think he even realized that Akeno’s breast had spilled out of her yukata.

I watched him as he looked around the room with his brows scrunched up in confusion again.

Apparently while we’re were fighting and I was embarrassing myself he had been inspecting the room.

It was much bigger than the last time I was in his room, but that was to be expected with the renovations Rias’s family would make.

I glanced down at Akeno. 

She had not sat up yet

She remained against the pillows, looking up at me with the soft color still lingering on her cheeks.

Her clothes were still in disarray.

Then she smiled.

Not her usual playful smile.

A smaller one.

Then she noticed the state she was in and gave me a more seductive grin.

I looked away first.

Rias noticed the whole thing.

Her expression sharpened with a mixture of irritation and something more possessive. “You two looked entirely too comfortable.”

“We did not,” I said as I moved away from Akeno. 

Akeno began to exaggeratedly pout. 

“Awww Yuki-chan, did you not enjoy getting tangled in the sheets with me. Maybe you’re just nervous with the others around. If you want we could try again alone.”

“Akeno-san.”

“Yes, Yuki-chan?”

“Don’t.”

Asia made a tiny sound that might have been a laugh trying very hard not to become one.

Then Issei quietly moved towards the door.

No one else noticed.

He glanced back once toward the room, then toward the walls and doorway again, confusion pulling more strongly at his face.

He must not have realized the scale that the renovation would be. 

He slipped out the door.

I did not try to stop him.

The rest of them were too occupied to see it.

Rias was still glaring at Akeno.

Akeno was still far too pleased with herself.

Asia was trying very hard toto calm them and herself down.

And I was still trying to convince my pulse it did not need to stay this fast.

Rias drew herself up, crimson hair disordered, cheeks slightly flushed, and no less regal for either fact.

“This is what happens when everyone starts intruding on my mornings.”

Asia blinked at her. “R-Rias-san, I was already here…”

Rias turned to her. “Asia, that’s different.”

Akeno laughed softly. “Showing special treatment now, Rias?”

I reached for one of the pillows and threw it at her.

She caught it this time without difficulty.

“My. You’re being cruel to me after enjoying your time ontop of me?”

I stared at her.

Asia went so red I was briefly concerned for her health.

Rias looked like she was reconsidering several things about the morning.

I was about to reply when somewhere out in the house, Issei’s voice exploded through the quiet.

“What the hell is going on with this house!?”

The room froze.

Rias blinked.

Akeno tilted her head.

Asia looked toward the door at once.

“When did Ise leave?” Rias asked

Akeno shrugged. 

It was already looking like it would be a long day. 

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